Listen to This Article Enhance your reading experience by listening to this article.

Doctors continued to paralyse services at three major referral hospitals as they stayed away from work on day eight of their ongoing industrial strike, even as a Whole-of-Government-Approach round-table sat last evening, to try and unravel the impasse.

At the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), the country’s biggest referral health facility, all the 70 medical doctors were away, same as Kenyatta University Teaching Referral and research Hospital (KUTRRH) and the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH).

Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) deputy Secretary Ggeneral, Dr Denis Miskellah confirmed yesterday, services at KNH and KUTRRH were completely shut. In Eldoret, KMPDU Uasin Branch Secretary General Jackson Mulei, led doctors at the MTRRH in street protests, paralysing most of the critical services at the referral facility.

Doctors vowed they will not resume duties until their grievances are resolved.

At the KUTRRH, only one doctor, according to Dr Miskellah, was on duty. He is not a member of the union, he also confirmed. “We have grounded services at KNH and KUTRRH. The two hospitals are shut down,” Dr Miskellah said.

By the time of going to press, KMPDU head office leadership had issued an itinerary of the doctors’ street protests this morning.

“Join us for a peaceful procession highlighting the state of Healthcare in Kenya. Date: Friday, March 22nd. Time: 8:00 am. Route: KNH – Afya House – Parliament – Treasury – CoG. Your presence is crucial for our cause. Let’s make our voices heard together,” the Union officials said on their X page, themed: #CBAImplementation.

Uasin Gishu KMPDU Branch, the doctors said they will not resume work until the national and county governments address their plight which they said was long overdue. “We shall continue with the strike as long as our grievances are not addressed and no amount of threats and intimidation from both levels of governments will compel us to return to work,” Mulei warned.

Take for a ride

Speaking in Eldoret town, Mulei castigated the national and county governments for taking them for a ride by failing to honour their demands and disregarding the Collective Bargaining Agreement reached between the two parties.

The demonstrators who were carrying placards and twigs marched from the entrance of the hospital through Eldoret-Nairobi highway before accessing the town’s central business district forcing some traders to close their business premises for fear of their goods being looted.

Scores of patients were turned while those who could afford were referred to the nearby private hospitals.
Among the demands the doctors want the government to address before they call off the strike include implementation of the 2017 CBA on enhanced salary payment, posting of medical interns and pay for doctors pursuing post-graduate studies.

Earlier on, the medics’ attempt to storm the county government of Uasin Gishu administration block that houses Governor Jonathan Bii’s office failed after county enforcement officers closed the gates.

County enforcers declared the area a no-go zone for the striking doctors and it was only after 30 minutes persuasion from the doctors’ representatives that only three officials from KMPDU were allowed to access the office to meet Health officials.

At Afya House in Nairobi, Medical Services Principal Secretary, Harry Kimtai who showed up to address journalists and issue letters to 1,000 clinical officers interns, called on the doctors to resume duties since the government had started addressing some of their grievances.

“We are prevailing upon the doctors to call off the strike, since the government has kicked off the process of posting the interns,” he said.

Kimutai also issued a letter dated March 19, addressed to Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Nakhumicha and Chief of Staff Felix Koskei inviting them for a Whole-of-Nation-Approach Consultative Meeting last evening at the KICC, VIP Pavilion.

He said it was in compliance with orders of the Employment and Labour relations Court.